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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Yage is from _________________.

2. What county does Bill flee to in this chapter?

3. What do the police do to people with injection scars?

4. Who takes Bill away from the bar and onto the streets?

5. Which small time junky does Old Ike particularly hate?

Short Essay Questions

1. Of what does Appendix 3 consist?

2. Describe the drug trade in Mexico.

3. Describe Bill's arrest.

4. How is drink affecting Bill in a bad way in Segment 10?

5. What does Bill discuss with the police in the interview in section 7?

6. Describe Bill's time in Texas in Section 8.

7. Describe Bill's time with the young drug users.

8. Of what does this final section of the novel consist?

9. What are Bill's relationship with drugs in Segment 11?

10. Of what do appendices 4, 5, 6 and 7 consist?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss differences between the novel and autobiography formats. What are the main elements of a novel? What are the main elements of an autobiography? What can novelists express that an autobiographer cannot? How can autobiographies keep to the facts while still maintaining a level of entertainment?

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, Burroughs has many homosexual encounters.

1) How was homosexuality viewed in the 1930's?

2) How does Burroughs' sexual orientation affect his life? Does it have any bearing on his drug addiction?

Essay Topic 3

Junky is written in the first person with Bill Lee as narrator. Why do you think Burroughs chose to write the story in the first person? How do you think the meaning of the story would have changed if it were written in the third person?

(see the answer keys)

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